[Foundation-l] Blackout at Italian Wikipedia

[Kat Walsh]

On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 6:26 PM, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:

> Is this the first time that WMF has actively taken a stance on
> politics and legislation?

No. Well, in this case, really, Wikimedia hasn't acted except to
observe, though several individuals have stated opinions.

But Wikimedia has acted to influence policy--for one, recently we
signed on to the EFF's amicus brief in a US Supreme Court copyright
case, Golan v. Holder:

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2011-June/066452.html

Beyond that we've taken several positions that support various
stances--on "sweat of the brow" copyrightability of scans, for
example, or the enforceability of free content licenses. Through that
alone we are not politically neutral, and can't be while the ability
to do what we're doing depends on favorable law.

-Kat

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